Each year in August Paris remembers those brave men and women who were slain in the 1944 fighting to liberate France from German Occupation. One sees all through the southern part of Paris plaques where a soldier or civilian had been slain by a German bullet or bomb, and each August the Paris […]

Here French soldier Pierre Durant was slain on the Liberation of Paris 1944 (cc Marilyn Z.Tomlins)

Each year in August Paris remembers those brave men and women who were slain in the 1944 fighting to liberate France from German Occupation.

One sees all through the southern part of Paris plaques where a soldier or civilian had been slain by a German bullet or bomb, and each August the Paris city hall lays a bouquet of blue, white and red flowers on the spot.

Blue, white and red of the French Tricolor to honour a fallen soldier. (cc Marilyn Z. Tomlins)

(The liberating armies – French and American – had entered Paris from south of the capital.)

The liberation of Paris had begun on August 19 and on August 25, the Germans under General Dietrich von Choltitz had surrendered. The French army led by General Phlippe Leclerc’s 2nd French Armoured Division had been gallantly assisted in the battle to free Paris by the US Third Army led by General George Patton. Hitler had a few days earlier screamed at Von Choltitz over the phone to ask whether Paris was burning? Hitler had issued orders to Von Choltitz to burn down Paris. Von Choltitz did not carry out Hitler’s order: he would afterwards say that he did not have it in his heart to burn down this magnificent city.

Here in Paris’s Montsouris Park was slain soldier Pierre DURANT on August 26, 1944. A German bomb had killed him. He had probably run into the park for protection. Althought Von Choltitz had surrendered the day before there were still German soldiers about, either continuing to fire in defiance or in retreat.

cc Mrilyn Z. Tomlins

cc Marilyn Z. Tomlins

I will end by saying that France must never stop honouring her heroes.